He pukapuka hou e whakaatu mai ana i te whakahemohemotanga o te reo Māori (New book charts the near-demise of te reo Māori)
Hei tērā wiki puta mai ai tētahi pukapuka hou e titiro ana ki te whakahemohemotanga o te reo Māori i te rautau 19, ka kitea iho e ōna kaipānui te whakamārama mō ngā tini āhuatanga i tata ngaro ai i te mata o te arero te reo taketake o Aotearoa.
He mea tuhi te pukapuka nei Ka Ngaro Te Reo e Paul Moon o Te Wānanga Aronui o Tāmaki Makaurau (AUT), he tuatahi tēnei e titiro ana ki te whakahemohemotanga o te reo Māori.
Hei tā Ahorangi Moon, i ahu mai te ingoa o te pukapuka nei i te whakataukī e mea ana, “Ka ngaro tāua, pērā i te ngaro o te moa.”
“E kore pea te tangata e whakapono i te taparere tonu o te rua ki ngaro oti atu te reo Māori i te tau 1899, inā hoki e 99 tau noa iho i mua atu i tērā ko te reo Māori anahe te reo kōrero puta noa i Aotearoa,” tā Ahorangi Moon.
Ko tā te pukapuka nei he whakaatu i te pānga o te aupēhitanga o te Māori ki te whakamahinga o te reo Māori. Ahakoa ngā mahi whakapūmau i te reo a ētahi rōpū ririki, pēnei i ngā whare karakia me ngā kura nā te nui o te whakaawetanga mai a te ahurea me te pāpori Pākehā i ngaro ai te reo i ngā hapori maha.
Kua whakaemihia ki roto i te pukapuka nei ētahi tuhinga kua oti te whakaputa, ētahi kōrero tawhito, ētahi kōrero tuku iho me ētahi kōrero nō nāianei tonu nā te Māori.
“He tuhinga whai tikanga tēnei e mārama pū ai te tangata ki ngā raruraru i ara ake i mua tae noa atu ki te tau 1899,” tā Ahorangi Moon. “Hei tāpiri atu, mā te mārama ka mōhio kia kore ai tēnei tūāhuatanga e hoki mai anō.”
Pāwhiria a konei e kite ai koe i ētahi atu whakamārama, e hoko ai rānei koe i te pukapuka nei.
New book charts the near-demise of te reo Māori
A new book on the near-demise of te reo Māori in the 19th century hits the shelves next week, and readers can expect its contents to provide a thorough analysis into the various factors that nearly led New Zealand’s indigenous language to becoming a lost tongue.
Ka Ngaro Te Reo, by Auckland University of Technology (AUT) Professor of History Paul Moon, represents a first on the topic of te reo Māori’s near extinction.
“The title of the book ‘Ka ngaro Te Reo’ stems from a Maori phrase,” explains Professor Moon. “Ka ngaro taua, pera i te ngaro o te moa - if the language be lost, man will be lost, as dead as the moa.”
“It’s hard to believe that in 1899, te reo Māori was in real danger of being lost forever, when only 99 years prior, it had been the only language that was spoken in New Zealand,” says Professor Moon.
Ka Ngaro Te Reo charts how the disruptive forces of colonisation experienced by Māori resulted in an adverse effect on the use of te reo Māori. Despite various attempts within small groups – churches and schools for example – to maintain the language, the increasingly European influence, culturally and socially, saw the language slowly disappear from many communities.
The book gathers together a range of published and archival material, oral histories, and contemporary accounts by Māori.
“This is a critical piece of literature when it comes to being able to fully understand what went wrong in the lead up to 1899,” says Professor Moon. “More importantly, it may help us avoid the same thing happening again.”
Click here for more information on the book, and/or to purchase a copy.